Is Google Keeping Gay Pride in the Closet?

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Some gay and lesbian critics are questioning why Google is keeping Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in the closet, reports said Friday.

Nicholas Jackson, a writer for the Atlantic who is gay, wrote an entire essay on why Google's decision not to create a doodle was wrong. From the piece:

Instead of boldly declaring its support of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, Google added a rainbow to the end of its search bar. But it only appears when certain queries are entered. "Gay" does the trick, as does "lesbian" and "transgender." But try even the slightest modifications to those terms -- "transgender pride," "lesbian empowerment" -- and the rainbow disappears as though it was never there. This should keep the six-color rainbow, a symbol universally associated with gay pride ever since San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker created it 33 years ago, from appearing on the pages of those who are still opposed to gay rights. And keep Google from having to deal with any backlash.

Jackson suggests that Google decided against the doodle because of controversy, but a Google spokeswoman said that it was simply an exclusion of necessity. "We enjoy celebrating holidays and special events at Google. As you may imagine, it's difficult for us to choose which events to celebrate on our site, and have a long list of those we'd like to celebrate in the future," she said in a statement. She also reiterated that Google added a rainbow to Pride-related queries.

We believe Jackson has a point. Only a few days ago, Google celebrated the 92nd birthday of the late children's author Richard Scarry, before that it celebrated Les Paul, Harry Houdini, Charlie Chaplin, Jules Verne, Pac-Man and even Burning Man. So why not Gay and Lesbian Pride Month?